Don't Knock Unless You're Bleeding, Growing Up in Cold War Washington

A memoir about the Alsop brothers who recorded and influenced American history in the 1950s and ‘60s. More

At the height of their fame, Joseph and Stewart Alsop were household names. Syndicated columnists who reached 25 million readers at a time, they dined with the power brokers in Cold War Washington, from Presidents to spies, all the while cranking out columns, investigative stories, books, speeches and hundreds of letters. In Washington, information is power, and in those days, reporters and sources passed stories back and forth over cocktails and around the dinner table. Nobody noticed the children listening at the top of the stairs. An award-winning fiction writer, Stewart’s only daughter, Elizabeth, finally turns her attention to the “two fathers” of her childhood recently portrayed in the play THE COLUMNIST, by David Auburn. In this memoir piece, Elizabeth sheds a unique light on the personalities behind these two powerful men, who not only recorded but influenced American history in the 1950s and ‘60s.

ELIZABETH WINTHROP (www.elizabethwinthrop.com), the author of over sixty works of fiction for all ages, was born in Washington, D.C. Her award-winning titles for children include The Castle in the Attic, Counting on Grace, The Red-Hot Rattoons and Dumpy La Rue. Her short story, The Golden Darters, was a selected by BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES by Robert Stone. Under the name Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop, she is the author of the memoir piece, Don't Knock Unless You're Bleeding; Growing Up in Cold War Washington. She is currently working on a personal history about her parents' love affair during World War II. The daughter of Stewart Alsop, the political journalist, she divides her time between New York City and the Berkshires. For more information, www.elizabethwinthrop.com